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By Mouton
23/08/2007 11:51:43
The rally series was a rare trio. Extremely detailed bodies were paired with chassis that did not do them full justice. The big wheels and the high ground clearance ruined the scale looks of the body. The Audi Quattro and Opel Ascona were given a Wild Willy chassis with an extra long wheel base. The third car in the series, Lancia Rally was based on the Frog chassis.
In order to save weight, and compensate for the high centre of gravity, Tamiya made the bodies from lexan. Front and rear ends where made of ABS plastic to give a detailed look. The Audi Quattro featured the livery from Audi’s works car driven by French Michelle Mouton in the Portuguese rally, one of the few women in WRC.
The paint job is easy but the decaling is quite a challenge, even for an experienced modeller. Being based on the Wild Willy chassis resulted in a car with low ground clearance over the stiff rear axle and a high centre of gravity thanks to placing the battery on top of the chassis. Sadly the high centre of gravity made the car prone to rolling, which wrecked the body. Its poor handling means there are few survivors out there. This has surely played its part in the car’s value as cars are scarce and new parts (both body sets in particular) command higher prices that most people would expect.
Its dire handling makes it a poor drive but still a fun and challenging one! As such is it a good representative for Tamiya’s simple-but-fun principle.
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